Journal of Italian Translation

Given the impossibility of translating into another language the aura
parlativa peculiar to an environment, the translator must, however, try to
conserve, in some way, the heterogeneity of registers that the introduction of
colloquialisms and dialects represents. The dialects in the novel are never
adopted for mere naturalistic verisimilitude, but blended into a more general
“macaronism” which affects the narration at the minimal and maximal levels
of syntax, morphology and vocabulary.
Current scholarship has resulted in a nearly complete re-interpretation
and re-evaluation of Gadda’s masterpiece. The publication, from 1988-
93, of Gadda’s complete works in a reliable edition makes it possible, for the
first time, to verify intertextual references throughout. This new translation
is a small part of the renewed understanding of this great literary work.
Synopsis
In Fascist Rome (the novel takes place in 1927), the young police inspector
Francesco Ingravallo (called don Ciccio for short), a detective-philosopher
from the southern Italian region of Molise, is called on to investigate
a jewel theft that has taken place in an apartment building at 219, Via
Merulana. In the building lives a couple, Remo and Liliana Balducci, friends
of Ingravallo: the wife, whom Ingravallo admires for her sweetness, and
with whom he is perhaps secretly in love, is of a family whose wealth has
been built in large measure on speculation during the First World War. During
a lunch with the couple, don Ciccio guesses that Liliana’s obvious melancholy
has been caused by her sterility, a calamity she attempts to soothe by
temporarily “adopting” several girls from the Roman provinces, mostly servants
that she showers with gifts and other blandishments. Three days after
the robbery, whose investigation is so far inconclusive, Ingravallo is shocked
by the news that Signora Balducci has been found murdered in her home. He
rushes to the scene and takes part in the preliminary inquiry, wondering
whether there is any link between the two crimes. Liliana’s cousin, the young
and handsome Giuliano Valdarena, is present at the murder scene having
discovered her corpse. Suspicion falls on him as the murderer with money as
motive; Liliana’s husband Remo is away on a business trip and cannot be
apprised of the murder. As chapter four opens, he returns and learns of his
wife’s death. Liliana’s cousin, Giuliano Valdarena, is under arrest at a Roman
prison, but no one seems convinced of his guilt. Liliana’s family awaits
some news of the family jewels, left in her keeping; and the Fascist authorities
are pressing the police for an arrest - even for an official scapegoat. The
interrogation of Balducci is interrupted by Liliana’s priest, Don Lorenzo
Corpi, with the news that Liliana Balducci had entrusted her last will and
testament to him. Dottor Fumi (Ingravallo’s Neapolitan superior) reads the
will, and Ingravallo indulges in some of the speculation for which he is
famous among his colleagues.
Gadda’s heavy use of dialects, technical language, parody, and literary
archaisms make for a dense linguistic mix.